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The Unpopular Opinion Thread

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
RVP played the same way for us in his last season and his first for United. The difference is with us we just scraped top 4 with them he won the league as the main man, of course he was gonna leave he was wasting some world class form here. You can't be mad at him for doing what he did.
I'll never forget a phrase from a report about the transfer I read at the time, 'Supporters have grown tired of the club allowing many of its big name players to leave'.

That's the ultimate kick in the teeth for a manager that couln't afford to buy ready made players like United, so picked up young players for a song, developed them and turned them into super stars and then couldn't afford to leep them in their prime.
 

Atlas

Lost a sausage bet on Xhaka 😭
I agree with your point, but one of the main beef about RVP was that he was such a dishonest prick as he was leaving.

His "Letter to Fans" was a horrible piece of stunt by him where he tried to put the blame on the club and Wenger. He was quickly exposed to have lied.
After he joined them he went an extra mile by being a complete asshole with his phrase about the little kid screaming: It was always United.

He burned all the bridges that he had with Arsenal and it's no wonder he is never welcomed back or appreciated by our fans.
His letter to fans did nothing more than state facts we should have known by then. The club simply lacked the ambition to win trophies and he wasn’t going to stick around because he wanted to win trophies.
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
I'll never forget a phrase from a report about the transfer I read at the time, 'Supporters have grown tired of the club allowing many of its big name players to leave'.

That's the ultimate kick in the teeth for a manager that couln't afford to buy ready made players like United, so picked up young players for a song, developed them and turned them into super stars and then couldn't afford to leep them in their prime.
Well yeah obviously fans are gonna grow tired of the clubs selling it's best players. What kind of reaction did you expect? Especially when you replace them with much lower quality i.e. Cole and Clichy, RVP and Giroud, the whole invincibles and who replaced them after. Arsenal was downgrading every year.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
But we all knew he was gonna leave once he didn't sign the contract, I think you'd be naive to think he was signing a new contract. All the other stuff he did was dumb but really it doesn't matter, we were poor at keeping our players and selling for a decent price. These were the days Torres was going for 50m, Bale for 80m, Aguero 40m etc we should have been better at selling players since we were a selling club.
We weren't poor at keeping players, we needed to sell them. In the period 2004 to 2013 our club spent nothing on players. All £270m we spent was generated from sales. It kept us in the top 4 which was incredible. Our fans never understood this.
 

albakos

Arséne Wenger: "I will miss you"
Administrator

Country: Kosova

Player:Saka
But we all knew he was gonna leave once he didn't sign the contract, I think you'd be naive to think he was signing a new contract. All the other stuff he did was dumb but really it doesn't matter, we were poor at keeping our players and selling for a decent price. These were the days Torres was going for 50m, Bale for 80m, Aguero 40m etc we should have been better at selling players since we were a selling club.

His letter to fans did nothing more than state facts we should have known by then. The club simply lacked the ambition to win trophies and he wasn’t going to stick around because he wanted to win trophies.

We all knew he was not signing it, but he could've chosen to be respectful to the club and not be an absolute prick in "burning the bridge as he was crossing the river".
 

Erlis

Only Came To See Granit Xhaka

Country: Kosova
I simply don't agree. You are drawing some odd conclusions based on what I am not sure. Sanchez was our best player when he was here, no question about that in my mind. He brought an energy and a willingness to always take the game to the opposition. Being at away games and really feeling the home fans dreading any time he got the ball. Other fans didn't fear Özil, they feared Sanchez!

Look, I don't want to **** on Özil. He was a great player for a period and also for us in certain type of games, but when he played for us Alexis always brought it, game in and game out. The fact that he eventually fell of a cliff was due to having played a ridiculous amount of games for his club and his country and always at full pelt! I rest my case...

alexis sanchez take a load off GIF

Alexis was clinical when he was in the box, he was a warrior, true,, a proud little man. I will never forget when one of his legs was injured and he didnt give up but continued to play with his stubbornnes. Howeve, his overall game lacked a few things, I will mention his dribbling, e.g. I remember quite well how many balls he would lose when in front of the box. He also lacked the willing of passing, He would rather lose a ball than pass it to a playmate. I think at the end, when he was here, he became a little too selfish, right?

As for Özil, whether you are willing to admit it or not, Özil is Özil. The world football will not see a player with such a unique beautiful and artistic style of football for a long time. I am not sure whether we will ever see a player like Özil. It is not that Özil will miss football, it is Özil that will be missed by football. He lacked nothing in his game and as a personality when on pitch. I think it is indeed Özil the reason why this games is called the beautiful game.
 
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Atlas

Lost a sausage bet on Xhaka 😭
We all knew he was not signing it, but he could've chosen to be respectful to the club and not be an absolute prick in "burning the bridge as he was crossing the river".
He explained why he wasn’t going to sign it which made sense at the time and makes even more sense now. If only Wenger had laid such a public ultimatum at the door of the board we might not be in this position now. Turns out there was money all along.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
lol I opened a can of worms.

This is good discussion though, great points made.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
He explained why he wasn’t going to sign it which made sense at the time and makes even more sense now. If only Wenger had laid such a public ultimatum at the door of the board we might not be in this position now. Turns out there was money all along.
There were reports at the time that Arsenal had offered RVP a superb wage of £130,000 a week, but he wanted to go for silverware, which fanned the flames for fan unrest. The open letter also didn’t help.

RVP claims now that there was no new contract offered by Arsenal to try and match the United deal. And this phrase he gave in an interview recently is telling:

‘It was not only between me and Arsène Wenger, there was more happening with Ivan [Gazidis] of course and the way he behaved and the way he handled the whole situation,”

To me this suggests that Ivan p!ssed him off. We don’t know the role of Gazidis in Arsène’s last few years because Arsène’s too gentlemanly to tell all, but I suspect he was a thorn in his side, both dealing with players and over ruling Arsène on transfers matters using statDNA. People forget Gazidis was his boss.
 

Flying Okapis

Most Well-Known Member
Everyone bagging on Harry Kane for not winning anything and should move, very similar situation for RVP too, ok he was part of the 04/05 FA Cup win and a Charity Shield but thats not enough.
 

Atlas

Lost a sausage bet on Xhaka 😭
There were reports at the time that Arsenal had offered RVP a superb wage of £130,000 a week, but he wanted to go for silverware, which fanned the flames for fan unrest. The open letter also didn’t help.

RVP claims now that there was no new contract offered by Arsenal to try and match the United deal. And this phrase he gave in an interview recently is telling:

‘It was not only between me and Arsène Wenger, there was more happening with Ivan [Gazidis] of course and the way he behaved and the way he handled the whole situation,”

To me this suggests that Ivan p!ssed him off. We don’t know the role of Gazidis in Arsène’s last few years because Arsène’s too gentlemanly to tell all, but I suspect he was a thorn in his side, both dealing with players and over ruling Arsène on transfers matters using statDNA. People forget Gazidis was his boss.
What RVP said was the truth either way because the club had no ambition beyond 4th. He followed the path set by the likes of Cesc and Nasri who had realized this in the past. The problem was with the club not the players and for the fanbase to blame the players was typically clueless.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Pretty much all our players who left during the Emirates years, our main players at least, were right to leave us.

From 2006 and on we dropped from a team that challenged for the Premier League and Champions League, to a top four team and one that could only win cups...that's still pretty good place to be, don't get me wrong...but after a few years of doing that, players should want to chance their arm at winning the main trophies.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
Everyone bagging on Harry Kane for not winning anything and should move, very similar situation for RVP too, ok he was part of the 04/05 FA Cup win and a Charity Shield but thats not enough.
It’s a problem for any team below the top 3 mega clubs though. Young kid develops to be a superstar and the draw of money and the chance to win silverware is all powerful in such a short career. History shows us these three clubs win nearly all the EPL titles and are much more likely to win a CL title. Sp**s, Arsenal and Liverpool have much lower odds and those below have even less chance. Kane should move.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
What RVP said was the truth either way because the club had no ambition beyond 4th. He followed the path set by the likes of Cesc and Nasri who had realized this in the past. The problem was with the club not the players and for the fanbase to blame the players was typically clueless.
The club couldn’t compete with teams spending so much more. We’d need new owners to get more ambition bro.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
Pretty much all our players who left during the Emirates years, our main players at least, were right to leave us.

From 2006 and on we dropped from a team that challenged for the Premier League and Champions League, to a top four team and one that could only win cups...that's still pretty good place to be, don't get me wrong...but after a few years of doing that, players should want to chance their arm at winning the main trophies.
It’s a tricky one though, short career and need for money and silverware v loyalty to a club and manager who developed you from nothing.

Some choose loyalty like Gerard and Kane (so far). But they’re English. Foreign players are already away from home and not playing for boyhood clubs, so their case is a bit different.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
It’s a tricky one though, short career and need for money and silverware v loyalty to a club and manager who developed you from nothing.

Some choose loyalty like Gerard and Kane (so far). But they’re English. Foreign players are already away from home and not playing for boyhood clubs, so their case is a bit different.

I can't really hold it against a player, if they want to leave a club that isn't winning major trophies (or in our case, isn't doing it anymore) for a team that is.

If a player stays loyal to a club, when they could sign for a better team, that deserves praise...but I don't think you should criticise a player that does leave for better, it's just moving up the ladder, like anyone would try and do in their field of work...that's my take on it.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
I can't really hold it against a player, if they want to leave a club that isn't winning major trophies (or in our case, isn't doing it anymore) for a team that is.

If a player stays loyal to a club, when they could sign for a better team, that deserves praise...but I don't think you should criticise a player that does leave for better, it's just moving up the ladder, like anyone would try and do in their field of work...that's my take on it.
There’s only 3 clubs in the EPL winning trophies regularly, so it’s not surprising the best players have gravitated to them, which is a double whammy for other clubs . . . not enough money and best players going to rivals.

Imagine if it was a level playing field and everybody’s ladder was the same length. :confused:
 

bingobob

A-M’s Resident Hunskelper
Trusted ⭐

Country: Scotland
He explained why he wasn’t going to sign it which made sense at the time and makes even more sense now. If only Wenger had laid such a public ultimatum at the door of the board we might not be in this position now. Turns out there was money all along.
Precisely. In a power struggle between Wenger and Silent Stan there would have been only one winner. But Wenger said nothing. His silence unfortunately makes him complicit.

As for not having money. Are we really to believe that we were so broke that we couldn't find a better keeper than Almunia? There was and still is a lot of blind faith support for Wenger. He is a human, he is fallible, he is allowed to make mistakes. Admitting the mistakes he made does not take away the memories he gave us nor take away his contribution to Arsenal or football more generally.
 

gunner4lyfe

Established Member
Torreira was good until Emery tried to play him as a 10 and destroyed his career and confidence. The fact that his confidence was destroyed, however, does prove that his mentality was week.
 

gunner4lyfe

Established Member
Precisely. In a power struggle between Wenger and Silent Stan there would have been only one winner. But Wenger said nothing. His silence unfortunately makes him complicit.

As for not having money. Are we really to believe that we were so broke that we couldn't find a better keeper than Almunia? There was and still is a lot of blind faith support for Wenger. He is a human, he is fallible, he is allowed to make mistakes. Admitting the mistakes he made does not take away the memories he gave us nor take away his contribution to Arsenal or football more generally.
PREACH!
 
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